John George Erastus Larsen 1852-1922 and Cecilie Marie Schmidt 1859-1930

Cecilie Marie Larsen 1855-1909

Peter Nielsen Scmidt 1825-1881

LIFE SKETCH OF JOHN GEORGE ERASTUS LARSEN

(Told to Arthur Smith Larsen by his father, John George Erastus Larsen.)

My parents, Hans Larsen and Elena Dorthea Stromberg Bentzen, were converts to the Church, being baptized on the 12 August 1850 in the Ramparts of Copenhagen, Denmark, by the Apostle, Erastus Snow.

Father was born 8 June 1806 in Lund, Lydevslor, Denmark. He died 27 Feb 1876 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mother was born 27 Dec 1810 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She died 9 Mar 1877 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

One of my sisters, Eline Hansine Larsen, was the first young lady to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Denmark.

I was born 3 Sep 1852, being blessed with the name of John George Erastus Larsen, after the three prominent missionaries John E. Forsgren, George Dykes, and Erastus Snow. I was the youngest of seven children and the only son to grow to manhood.

When I was but a few months old my parents took me with them and the first company of emigrants from Denmark, (this being the largest company to come to America), under the direction of John E. Forsgren, setting sail on the ship Forest Monarch, leaving the 23 December 1852.

While on the ocean an epidemic of smallpox broke out among the saints, causing much sorrow to the parents and friends, many of them were buried at sea.

On 19 March 1853 we arrived on American soil at New Orleans, burying my young sister, Margrette Kristine Larsen, here, she had taken sick while on the ocean and had died one day out from land. We stayed here until the Saints started for Salt Lake City, Utah, crossing the plains with ox teams.

I was carried across the plains by my mother, she being afraid to ride behind the oxen. She would walk ahead of the family covered wagon to a considerable distance, then sit down to rest until the family came up to her, then she would go on again. There must have been an increased endearment and love for this baby as she pursued her long and tiresome journey, thousands of miles beyond the sacred grave in New Orleans that held the remains of her four-year old and youngest daughter, Margrette, which beloved spot she would never see again in this life.

Here again, hardships and sorrow overtook us, at times when the oxen died on the way it was up to one of the older children to take its place to pull the carts. Many is the time we have had to stop and bury a loved one at the side of the road or take care of a very sick friend, wondering if the Lord would take care of their remains from the wild animals.

There was at one time when a very sick child in one of the carts, the women taking care of it so that the mother could get some rest, she had been up day and night looking after her sick child, there was no use, for on the fourth day it died of a very high fever. The Saints tried to bury it, but the mother would not give it up, still thinking that she was alive. Then one night the father had a talk with her, explaining that the Lord had called her home. When he was through she laid the child in his arms and told him to lay it away. But during the early evening they had heard a pack of wolves in the distance howling. This frightened the mother and she would not let them bury her child. After one of the sisters had a talk with her, she let them take the child and lay it at rest.

My father has told me of a lot of hardships and experiences he and his family have gone through. We arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in September 1853, making our home in the 2nd Ward, on 8th South and 3rd East. One of my sisters being buried where the old poplar tree stands with the fence around it, but at this time there is not much left of the markings.

As I grew to manhood I assisted my father in building the Capitol Building at Fillmore, Utah, also laboring many years hoisting granite rock for the Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. I also helped to install the pipes for the pipe organ in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

I also was a trustee to President Brigham Young, hauling hot spring water from the springs where the Wasatch Springs are now located. He used this water to relieve him of his rheumatism.

While here in the Valley we always had to be on the lookout for Indians, many is the time I have heard the story of this child or that person being captured or killed by the Indians.

In 1873 I married a Miss Cecilia Mary Schmidt, who was born 12 Jan 1858 at Aarhus, Denmark. We lived in Salt Lake Valley eight years (1881) when I took my family and moved to a town up in the northern part of the state of Utah, that is now known as Tremonton, Box Elder, Co., taking up dry farming on the banks of the Malad River, two miles north of the town, here again I had hardships.

There were the Indians and the wild animals, the Indians sneaking up to the house at night and looking in at the window watching what you were doing and frightening the children nearly to death with their made up faces. But they were always friendly with my family and I, we giving them the things they needed and wanted by trading with them.

Another time after we had settled on the banks of the Malad River in Tremonton we let the Indians stay on the west side of the river until they decided to go on the east side for that was set apart for the Indians to make their camps, no settlers had settled there as yet.

The day came when they moved their camp across the river, all the time keeping their eyes on the pigpen where there was a sow with her litter of little ones.

All the while they were here they were peaceful, but they must have wanted a certain little pig, for one of the children a few days later, after going out to feed the pigs, one of the children came running in shouting that a pig was missing. He wanted to know if I was going to go after it, I said I was not and for none of them to bother about it either, and we would just wait and see what would happen. So we all went about our business, doing the chores we had to do and the other things that a farm requires.

After waiting three or four days and at the morning feeding, the children came running in and shouting that the pig was back. It must have been during the night that one of the Indians brought the pig back, because there it was home and with its mother as if nothing had happened. The chief of the tribe must have had a talk with the one that had taken the pig.

Then there is that old Malad River that would get on a rampage with its rolling and roaring, taking everything with it, all the good grazing land from side to side and the bridges the boys and I and the neighbors had built to cross so that we would not have to go around by the road for it was about two and a half miles farther, which was quite a distance when in a hurry. But every time that old river got on a rampage we all knew just what we had to do , clean up and build a new bridge.

I will say this, that I used my head when I built my home on top of a hill. That is partly standing this day. The house has a large south sunny kitchen with a leanto on the north where the menfolk left their working clothes when they came in from doing chores or working in the fields, a hallway running north and south with a pantry on the north and a closet on the south, a large living room with two bedrooms on the north.

There was a duck pond on the south with poplar trees all around it as well as hollyhocks. There was a large lawn in front of the house with a path leading down to the driveway, it had lilac trees and all kinds of flowers on both sides. There are poplar trees on both sides of the drive way down to the main highway which is about a half mile long.

Here is where my wife and I reared our family of twelve sons and daughters, until there were only four sons and a granddaughter whom we took to raise after her parents died. My wife did fine with the children, giving them all something to do and told the older ones to see that it got done without any fuss.

She was a midwife and would receive calls any time of the day and night. She has harnessed her horse and hitched it up to a buggy or cutter depending on the time of year and the weather, she deliver a lot of babies throughout that country at that time.

All this time the older children were leaving home, and the farm was getting too much for me to handle, there were just the four young boys and my granddaughter and my wife and I, also my health was getting poor, so I bought a lot in the town of Tremonton, the highway running east and west past it. Here we lived until 1915 then we moved back to Salt Lake City, Utah, buying a home up on MacClandon Street from where my wife and I could go and do temple work. But my health failed me so bad I had to give this up also.

---John George Erastus Larsen died 27 Feb 1922 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is also buried there. His wife then bought her a home up on Douglas Street near the old prison. Here she lived doing a little temple work now and then for her health was also failing fast. Here she died 26 Aug 1930, Salt Lake City, Utah, and is also buried here. They leaving with us the wonderful thoughts and teachings to all who associated with them.

Further remembrances of John George Erastus Larsen

by Arthur Smith Larsen

John George Erastus Larsen often referred to the early days both to we, his children, and to neighbors, who were very few in numbers, during pioneering in Cache and Bear River or Malad valleys, when we his children were becoming old enough to understand what father was talking about.

I have heard him speak of flour being worth $20.00 per bag. I do not remember whether that was for a 50 or 100 lb. bag. Eggs would bring $1.00 per dozen. He had often spoken of things President Young would say, and I remember clearly, for it was told us children at the dinner table, at a period of time when all things sinful or criminal or of a distrustful nature were wholly absent. He heard President Young say that the day would come when headlines of our papers would be strewn with information of murder and crime. He would also state to us of dreams and warning which he had, and had heeded, and how they had proved a safety and a blessing to him. He related like circumstances with his father, Hans Larsen. I have heard father and his neighbor, John G. Petty (or Patty) talk most interestingly of their early days in Salt Lake City, Utah, of the early business places, Gobie Pitts Drug Store, I recall of Jenning's. Also I have heard him talk about the Goddbeites.

He told us of a time as a young man going into the Tithing Yard, where other young men dared him to go near a wild steer feeding within the enclosure. He took up the challenge with the result that the animal rushed him, almost unaware and pinned him back and onto the ground, the steer's long horns luckily driving into the ground on either side of his chest. I am sure this was the cause of my father's many complaints of his chest (sternum) annoying him, for he said the animal's forehead crushed him as he struck the ground. He was only released when others of the party drove the animal away.

I recall traveling by bobsleigh over a long stretch of ice and of father having killed a large hog which frightened my brother and myself, up onto the mountainside, where was a dry canal, over which we saw a jackrabbit leap, and in the light fallen snow could see tracks of other rabbits, which greatly interested us little fellows.

My father moved his family to Bear River city about 1887. While living in this little city, my father worked on the railroad, in and out of Corinne during one winter, and at the Hill Side Ranch, run by my mother's sister's husband, Lars F. Johnson. There he earned a span of horses with which to engage in farming. We had lived one winter in a small log house in the north part of town, then moved to a homestead northwest of town then moved to a homestead northwest of town and on the west side of the Malad River, belonging to my Uncle, Lars F. Johnson, where he built a small house, a corral, and some out buildings. The family lived here one year.

The family traveled south of the Bear River City to cross the Malad River, then west and north a long distance around to get to this homestead, which distance later was greatly reduced by father finding a ford across the river near the home, yet quite difficult to afford access to the opposite side. The team would be driven to the opposite side, a narrow river, then halted and take a sideboard off the wagon box, extend it from the wagon to the bank, over which he would pass us children one by one, while he waded in the water from the wagon to the shore, then urged the team with the wagon up the steep bank where we would all be replaced into the wagon box to journey on to town. After an unsuccessful venture for a livelihood in the place, father moved us to a home on the west central side of Bear River City.

In the fall of 1889 father moved his family to what is now known as Tremonton, Box Elder County, utah. Here he pioneered in earnest and effort endeavor. All his children grew up under these conditions, the last five of his children were born here.

In our earliest days here the place was known as Bonneville, because of so many skeletons strewn throughout the Malad River Bottoms, as a result of the Black Leg Disease and other causes before father came.

Then later came the name Elwood, for the settlers east of the Malad River and south toward Bear River City, Utah, Squaretown, or Plymouth, the name Garland was given, and on the west side of the Malad River, north to Garland and south a mile or so the name of Tremonton was later given. But earlier the general territory was called Fairview.

When father moved to Malad River or Tremonton, the Bear River Canal Company was digging and building a canal from the Bear River Canyon about Collinston and bringing it south on the west side of Bear River toward Bear River City, which eventually gave an artery to the west side of the valley, then to Rowville, and into Thatcher, later an east artery projected along the foothills south toward Brigham City and into the territory lying to the west and north of that city or along the east side of Bear River.

Contractors by the name of Torpey were building this canal and had brought it as far south as the old dam on the Malad River, which dam was responsible for irrigation water for Bear River City when father settled his family on the Malad River. He worked upon this canal, after that time, and may have done before he moved away from Bear River City. Later he worked upon the branch running through Rowville and some time after the water was turned into the canal.

Father contracted 40 acre feet of water, from this west branch, to irrigate 40 acres of his homestead at $12.50 per acre foot, very soon after this it sold for $25.00. Much cutting and filling was necessary, after getting onto his property, to bring the water to this acreage. This means of farming was new to him, but much more profitable than dry farming, which he had been engaged in for a few years before this west canal was built, he having homesteaded on the west banks of the Malad River. Here failures of farming made it necessary for him to obtain work away from home wherever possible and of course, the larder was not too full at any time.

Winter made its vivid impressions by much snow and zero weather, at the first there was no schooling for his children and later was irrigation. One winter he took his children to Garland by team to the first school building and the first public building built there, which as elsewhere was used for Church, amusements, and all gatherings, whenever there was to be such.

Father received $10.00 from the Bear River City school trustees, as they were called, for this way he got his children into school.

One year it was necessary for younger children and students from two to three settlements to be brought together to a little farm house, owned by Chris Jorgensen at Elwood, then Fairview, in order to warrant sufficient number of students to engage an instructor to be paid by the school board for this district. None of his children obtained favorable advantages except the youngest daughter, Rowena, and myself.

Father was an unassuming, humble and scrupulously honest man and a very accommodating to his neighbors by whom he was generally likewise treated in return.

He never failed to call us children in from our recreations whatever the hour, to engage in family prayer before he retired for the night, when we might return to our play.

As I now view the years and the struggles of those pioneer days, where now is the town of Tremonton, and vicinity, father brought with hard and tiresome endeavor and undertakings, barriers and disappointments from year to year. In quest for sustenance for thirteen hungry mouths to feed and bodies to clothe, reverently compliments my father for his devotion to his task through the years.

He was not as successful in his devotion to his application, and the results therefore was where some of his distant friends and neighbors, however, with time and experience, the old homestead was made to appear prosperous under his hands. There were some splendid neighbors miles apart from us, who, on learning there was no milk producing cow on the premises, loaned to father a good milker, then in time sold the animal very cheap. This took place when one of them was Presiding Elder Allen Hunsaker, the other, Chris Peterson, who lived on the banks of the Bear River. Another neighbor, John White, one day talking over the food situation, said to father, "John, as long as I have two sacks of flour in my house, you shall have one of them." God bless such real people and neighbors.

I felt then the value of what neighbors often thought. I was very young, but it was a very common thing to exchange work for work on anything which required help, or to exchange work for food, hay, straw, potatoes, grains, etc. Oftentime on Sunday the family held Sunday School at home, under father's directions because of no access to such elsewhere.

We boys were delighted when our father would consent to telling us a story on retiring to bed. Oftentimes these were stories from the Bible, the Lord's promises to us and what he wanted us to do, if we would listen to him and of the New Jerusalem that was to be built in this country that was to be a city for his faithful and good children.

Out upon that secluded quiet homestead at night, all our ears were in tune to any story our father told us. Father told us of a time before he became married that he, with another man, was traveling, for what reason and place I do not recall. As they journeyed out into the new territory with their team hitched to a lumber wagon, father, growing sleepy from the glare and heat of the sun, when he told his companion he was going to lie in the bottom of the wagon box and sleep for a little while. He had fallen to sleep quickly and a person called to him and told him to turn off from the road at a certain place and follow the newly made wagon tracks which led across an awkward ditch to pass over, then continue following the newly made tracks.

Father wakened and asked his companion why he had called him. When he said he had not done so, nor had said anything to him, father, then termed it to be his imagination and fell asleep again. When this warning was repeated again, he inquired of his companion and on being assured he had not called him, father again termed it another imagination and fell asleep again.

Again being warned he aroused himself and got into the seat and told his companion he was going to look for the place he had been admonished about. They had not traveled far, when they found where one or two travelers had left the road, shown to him, which meager outline they followed and eventually came to the crossing of a deep ditch, made crossable by being filled with old posts, until it was possible to urge the team over and draw the wagon across. Continuing they came in again to the main road at some distance, which now was the turnpike, leading on winding down rather a steep incline from which point they could see about where their difficulty would have been had they continued on the beaten road. Had they followed, it would, at a certain point, because of road trouble - perhaps a landslide - I do not remember what father said the trouble about the road was. He said it would have been necessary for them to remove the box and uncouple the running gears in order to turn around and retrace their course to safety, and in doing so would likely have lost part of their running gears, by getting away from them, lurching to the bottom of the canyon.

I have listed to father tell many interesting stories of early days in Salt Lake, and Utah, also about Church leaders and members of the Church, but I do no recall of many of them after so many years.

As the ecclesiastical activities developed, father served whenever the priesthood requested it of him and he traveled many miles, as was necessary then to cover his district in Ward Teaching, and I have listened to him speak from the pulpit a number of times. He was not a fluent, but a conscientious speaker. He rose to the office of High Priest, to which office he was faithful many years before he passed away, diligent in performing temple work for several hundred male relatives, all that for whom records had been gathered. He died 27th February 1922 and was buried from the LeGrand Ward House, Bishop Edward M. Ashton's counselor, Elder Smith, was in charge. Speakers were his brother-in-law, Lars F. Johnson, Bishop of Bear River City, Utah; President Knud H. Fridal of Bear River Stake and a long-time pioneer neighbor; Lars Anderson, brother-in-law.

John George Erastus Larsen made his homestead entry in Section 2, Range 3 west, in township 16 North, Salt Lake Meridian. This section 2 was entered on the east half (320 acres) by Indians from Washakie, who did nothing about it until a few years after we settled on the west side of that section, the Malad River between us. Then the Indians came down, pitched their wickiups and remained until Fall, having planted corn and melons under irrigation. If there was grain planted I do not recall.

They may have dry farmed before we moved to the valley for there were at least two old shell frame buildings still standing in the territory to the east of which I had been informed were Indian houses.

The west half of the Section 2 was halved in an "L" shape, and J.G.E. Larsen entered the north "L", sitting on the west banks of the river, and his neighbor, Knud H. Fridal, entered the south "L" and settled on the east banks of the river. This Malad River serpentined from the northeast corner of this part of Section 2, to the central part, then southeasterly, then westerly and southerly through and out of the southern part of the section. This water could not be used for culinary purposes, due to sulphur springs ten miles to the north flowing into it, but served for animals and washing.

Mr. Fridal was already homesteading when we moved out there, but he and his family would move to Bear River City for the winter where there were Church and a good school, and where they owned a good home.

As "man is not without the woman," so it was that my mother filled her niche abreast my father in those days where devotion to the cause fell equally upon husband and wife. By what faith and fortitude did she in determination discharge a wife's and mother's sacred obligations under conditions and circumstances, when true to the duties of motherhood, she, her very life in hand and trusts in her Creator for protection and aid, for doctors were hardly heard of, let alone obtaining the services of one, so many miles removed in bearing her family.

She had learned the value of prayer and faith in her Heavenly Father, which continued with her throughout her entire life, which qualities also, she, together with my father, instilled into the hearts of their offspring. Our day's duties were finished only when retiring for the night we knelt in family prayer, taking our turns as father requested for that night. Then each of us would have our prayer at our bedside as we retired, which might have been after the family prayer or later according to whether there was further work for us to do, or if we were permitted to remain up and engage in some recreation.

When Saturday had ended, what a regiment of shoes were to be brightened up for the Sabbath. Customarily the girls were provided with dresses and hats for Christmas and the 24th of July.

As time moved on and other settlers came into the territory, our social life and worshipping center moved from or President Elder, Allen Hunsaker's, little log house on the banks of the Malad River, to the little green schoolhouse located a mile east and north from Hunsaker's place, a large building, and owned by Chris Jorgensen, which the Bear River City School trustees rented for school and in which the neighborhood was granted the privilege of holding religious and social gatherings. This home had served as Bro. Jorgensen's dwelling while working his farm there. From this place our central point was taken up in a new school building erected nearly one mile south of it, and on the country road running north and south between the Bear and the Malad Rivers, Allen Hunsaker still presiding.

A little later, a ward was organized as the Elwood Ward, with Peter M. Hansen as Bishop, James P. Christensen, and Knud H. Fridal, as counselors. These brethren encouraged the creation of an amusement hall of fairly good size and under a stock plan, which building served so well for entertainments and religious gatherings. It was later by consent of stockholders converted into the property of the Elwood Ecclesiastical Ward. I had an interest in the project, which I released with others, to the bishopric.

In these places my father and mother, with their children worshipped God. Here all of my father's six sons were ordained to the Lesser Priesthood. Here parents and children alike enjoyed the amusements and dances, parents and adults dancing with the children, then the adults alone for a dance or so. When the children had their turn alone in the old Quadrille, waltz, Schottish, Marches, Medleys Roger, De-Coverly, and etc.

Stand in Holy places, means for us to be found active and sincerely devoted to God's Priesthood and is requirements through his Church and through the continuance and obedience unto the appointed officers in the Priesthood over us, in which we will neither worry nor fear, because of God's spirit upon us. Therefore, we will not be moved until our Savior comes, which is now near at hand, according to what we witness among all nations. Our next warfare is not the cruelest thing, for the day will be terrible when famine, earthquakes and pestilence and plague waste humanity away. Of them who will not consider and serve the God of this world - the true and living God.

These teachings brought our forefathers out of the East (Babylon) where now rages warfare and desolation. These teachings our parents have given us through this life. To them we must faithfully subscribe, if we and our loved ones choose to be preserved from destruction.

GENEALOGICAL SKETCH OF CECILIA MARY SMITH LARSEN

AND SOME OF HER ANCESTORS

The name of Cecilie Marie Schmidt was changed to Cecilia Mary Smith after she emigrated to Utah. Many family records also show her name as Mary Cecilia, though she was christened as Cecilie Marie.

She was born in Aarhus, Denmark on the 12th of January 1858, the daughter of Peter Nielsen and Mette Rasmussen Schmidt. Her father, Peter Nielsen Schmidt, was born in Norborg, Als, Denmark, on the 26th of October 1825, the son of Jorgan Schmidt and Cecilia Marie Pedersen, later Petersen.

His mother, Cecilia (or Sidsel) Marie Pedersen was christened on the 10th day of January 1802, in the Marstal Church, Svendborg, Denmark. She was the daughter of Peder Nielsen of St. Rise Church, Aero, Svendborg, Denmark and

Karen Hansen or Lauritzdatter. Both names appear, Hansdatter in marriage and later as Lauritzdatter. It is possible that this lady's father had the two names Hans and Lauritz, and that the daughter became confused as to which

one was the first name, or the name after which the children were then named. She was likely born in Kragmus, Svendborg, Denmark.

Arthur S. Larsen heard his mother discuss the name of this grandmother of her father as that of Kaspersen, therefore her name might be Karen Kaspersen, daughter of Hans or Lauritz Kaspersen.

Her husband, Peter Nielsen, of St.Rise, was a gardener and a small householder and later mentioned as a soldier by the name of Peter Holgersen. He was born about 1755, likely in Kragmus, Marstal Church, but the record is missing for the last part of 1754 and the year 1755. He was married there the 4th of February 1798 to Karen Hansdatter, of the same place. [Later research gives his christening date as 21 Feb 1768, St. Rise, Aero, Svendborg, Denmark.] He died the 31st of October 1811 and is buried in Marstal the 3rd of

November.

They had the following children:

1. Gertrude Pedersen, christened in Marstal Church on the 13th of June 1798. There is no further information of her as yet.

2. Anne Kirstene Pedersen, born 8th September 1799 and christened in Marstal Church on the 15th September 1799. There is found in the correspondence of Peder Nielsen Schmidt, who is a nephew of these children, that his Aunt Anna Kirstine died in 1858, at which time the family was living in Aarhus, Denmark, and likely in close touch with these children and their parents, who lived in Marstal. The place of her death is not known to us but likely it was in Soby for it was there the only surviving member of the family - Sidsel or Cecilia Marie Pedersen was then living. There is meager information as to Anne's marriage to a man by the name of Jacob Kim and other fragmentary information has it she married Peder Rasmussen, born in Aero.

3. Sidsel or Cecilia Marie Pedersen, for whom Cecilia Mary Smith Larsen is named, was christened in the Church of Marstal on 10 Jan 1802. She was most likely born there according to the custom of taking the baby to the church for christening within a very few days after its birth.

She was confirmed in this same place (Marstal) in 1819. She left Marstal the 30 June 1822 for the Isle of Als in Norborg, then in Schlosning, now in Denmark. She was then 20 years of age, which also confirms her birth. Three years later, the 26th of Oct 1825, her son Peder Nielsen Schmidt, was born on the Isle of Als, Sonderborg, Denmark.

His father was Jorgan Schmidt, who is reported as being a servant there. When Peder was one year old, he was vaccinated as the son of Sidsel Marie Pedersdatter and Jorgan Schmidt, which according to the Danish Genealogists signifies that the parents were at least engaged to be married, therefore, the mother could claim the father's surname for her child. Maybe the custom prevails there as in early days. The name of couples were registered when engaged, or the date of their intention to be married.

4. Niels Peder Nielsen was born 30 Mar 1803 in Kragmus, Marstal, Svendborg, Denmark and christened 3 April 1803. He was buried there on 9 Apr 1803.

5. There is also record of a stillborn daughter on the 25 December 1804 in the same place.

Cecilie Marie, the third child above, later married Jorgen Rasmussen, of Soby, Fyne, Odense, Denmark. He was born on 25 Mar 1804. Five children were born to them as follows:

Old notes give Aero as the birth place of the above group, which is believed to be an island and maybe a town thereon, with its divisional parishes; Kragmus, may be a larger geographical division upon the Island of Aero.

Notes made by Arthur Smith Larsen made when talking about our people with his mother and her Aunt Karen Iversen in about 1905, show that a sister (that would be a half sister) to Peter Nielsen Schmidt by the name of Karen Jorgansdatter, who was born in Soby, Aero, Denmark, was, according to their last knowledge of her, living on the Island of Also, Norborg, Denmark or Schlesvig. This information would make it appear that there were kinship ties on the Island of Also, as that is where Cecilie (or Sidsel) Marie Pedersdatter was employed or living when her son Peter Nielsen Schmidt was born.

Efforts have been made to locate or contact descendants from any half brothers and sisters but have not succeeded.

Grandfather Schmidt left a statement that he had a sister "Katrina Marie," which of course would be a Jorgensen, and she could have been born between the third (Karen) and fourth (Hans Christian) of the children of the above group. The intervening period is sufficient to permit this member being born then, although she is not given on the manuscript along with the other children from the church records in Aero, Denmark.

According to early Scandinavian church and family notations Sidsel Marie Pedersen and her family must have heard the Gospel message, for the reason that her son, Peter Nielsen Schmidt, received the Gospel, also members of his family, his wife and her people, sometime before they emigrated to Utah in 1873, and there was correspondence between my grandfather and his mother and stepfather after coming to Salt Lake City. There is a letter from Jorgan Rasmussen (the stepfather) to Peter Nielsen Schmidt, and also a recollection of Arthur S. Larsen hearing his mother state that her father (P.N. Schmidt) had encouraged his mother to come to Utah, but she lastly gave up hopes for this venture.

Concerning further records of the Jorgan Rasmussen family we have a manuscript genealogy of his family and ancestors dating back to the early 17th Century, reference to which can be made in the Larsen-Schmidt family records in the Archives of the Genealogical Society of Utah.

Peter Nielsen Schmidt married Mette Rasmussen in Aarhus, Denmark in 1855. She was born 29 Apr 1838 at Hongcalle, Maarslet, Aarhus, Denmark, the daughter of Rasmus Pedersen and Knudsine Christensen. She was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 7 Nov 1858 in the sit [?] by N. Christensen and confirmed a member of the church the same day by the same elder. To this couple were born the following children.

2. Cecilia Marie Schmidt, born 12 Jan 1858, Aarhus, Denmark. She was baptized 8 June 1873. She married John George Erastus Larsen on 3 September 1876 in Salt Lake City. She died 26 Aug 1930 in Salt Lake City.

Their mother, Mette Rasmussen, died 1 July 1866, a member of the Church, just before or after two of her sisters embarked for America. Her sisters who came to Utah were Karen, who married Peter Iversen and settled in Bear River City, Utah, and Anna, who married Jens Peter Tygisen. Her brother Peder Rasmusssen came in 1872, his wife, Bodil Marie Paulsen and a little son, Lauritz Peter Rasmussen having come in 1871. Why this mother and baby son came to Utah one year ahead of the husband I have not learned.

Mette Rasmussen's parents, Rasmus Pedersen, who died in Holme, Aarhus, Denmark 27 May 1857, and Knudsine Christensen joined themselves with the Latter-day Saints Church on 13 April 1853, soon after the Gospel was introduced into Scandinavia.

It appears that after the daughter, Mette's, death in 1866, her mother, grandmother to Mette's little children, gave a hand in their care and protection, for she remained back of emigrating adult children and accompanied these two motherless granddaughters and their father to Utah in 1873, their father having been baptized into the LDS Church on 6 July 1868, by Elder L. Larsen. It seems the family waited for the father to accept Mormonism before emigrating.

At Omaha, Nebraska, they were met by Peter Tygisen who informed them that his wife, Knudsine's daughter, Anne, had died in Portland, Oregon, where her husband was assisting in pioneering railroad construction, leaving three little sons, the youngest a few days old. She had died 11 May 1871. The name of the sons are:

1. Jens, born 18 Dec 1867, Salt Lake City, Utah

2. Peter, born 27 July 1869, Powder River Valley, Wyoming

3. Rasmus Hendrick, born 5 May 1871, Portland, Oregon.

Their surname might be Tygsen, Tygersen or even Torgeesen, or Thorgusen. It was given to the family many years ago, and there is some uncertainty about its spelling.

Knudsine Christensen Pedersen, after arriving in Ogden, enroute to Salt Lake City, was met by her daughter, Karen Iversen, and taken to Bear River City to live with her, where later she died and is buried in the city cemetery there. Efforts have been made to obtain her death date from Bear River City Ward records without success. Arthur S. Larsen recalls his mother pointing out her grave to him in the late 1880s. He also recalls attending a funeral when they lived in Bear River City, and shown a short and heavy set lady in her coffin, nicely dressed in her temple clothing, and that she may have been this grandmother. [However, there is no record of her attending the temple before her death.]

This lady was born on 5 April 1808 in Marjillerborg or Aarhus, Denmark and was baptized into the Church in Skaade Denmark 13 Apr 1853 by Elder H. Jensen. She was married to Rasmus Pedersen 29 Apr 1838 in Maarslet, Aarhus, Denmark.

To the above couple were born the following children:

1. Mette, born 29 Apr 1838; married Peder Nielsen Schmidt; died 1 July 1866 in Denmark.

2. Peder Rasmussen, born 4 April 1840. Married about 1867 Bodil Marie Paulsen, emigrated on 21 June 1872 on the "Nevada". He died 18 Sep 1917 and is buried in Mount Olive Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah.

3. Christian or Christine Rasmussen, born and died 31 October 1841.

4. Christine Rasmussen, born 20 Jan 1843, was baptized into the Church 25 Feb 1862 in Aarhus by M. Nielsen and confirmed 26 Feb 1862 by Elder J. C. Gurtsen. This aunt had been encouraged to come to Utah, but a young daughter of hers had married a German and they had moved to Fredericka, presumably the mother was included in this move, rendering her possibilities for coming to America too intricate, as the daughter was not interested in our people, or rather, not interested in the Mormon faith.

5. Karen Rasmussen, born 23 April 1844, Holme, Aarhus, Denmark; married Peter Iversen, came to Utah in 1866. Died about June 1915 and is buried in Bear River City, Utah.

6. Caroline Rasmussen, born 31 Jan 1846, Holme; died 4 April 1865.

7. Ane (Anna) Rasmussen, born 17 Jan 1848, Holme; married Jens Peter Tygesen, died in Portland, Oregon, 11 May 1871. She was baptized in the LDS Church 22 Feb 1857 in Holme by M. Jensen and confirmed the same day by J. Petersen. She was then 9 years of age and this was also only a few months before her father's death. She emigrated to Utah 16 May 1866. In this company was the man she married.

8. Christian Rasmussen, born 12 Sep 1849 and died 28 Oct 1849.

Peder Rasmussen (Number 2 above) and his wife, Bodil Paulsen Rasmussen, came to Utah before Peder Nielsen Schmidt and his daughters and Knudsine Christensen Pedersen. Peter Rasmussen and his wife after living a short time in Salt Lake City, Utah, settled in Granger, west and south of Salt Lake City. They had two sons before leaving Denmark.

1. M Rasmus Peter Rasmussen, born 6 June 1868 and died 27 June 1868.

2. M Lauritz Peter Rasmussen, born 29 Nov 1869. He was married but his wife died. He has one daughter married to a Mr. Hendrickson, a mail carrier in Salt Lake City.

6. F Elenora Rasmussen, born 13 Nov 1879, died 9 Mar 1922. Married a Mr. Wadell, left a large family.

7. F Laren Rasmussen, born 25 Dec 1881, married twice, died.

8. M Martin Rasmussen, born 12 Nov 1883, married Ida Elizabeth Hayden. They have a very large family and live in Granger.

9. M Frederick Rasmussen, born 7 Sep 1889, married.

Child number 5 of Rasmus Pedersen and Knudsine Christensen, Karen, was baptized into the Church 11 Jan 1856 in Holme, Denmark by J. Petersen and confirmed the same day by the same J. Petersen. She emigrated in 1870 according to Book 1077 p. 108, which contradicts information obtained from one of the emigrants long since deceased. If this lady came in 1870 then her sister, Anne, came alone in 1866, as her first child was born in Salt Lake City in Dec 1867. This would mean that each member of this particular family came to Utah one by one from 1866 to 1872. Quite likely for the need of collecting sufficient immigration funds to send more than one at a time.

Karen married Peter Iversen, who settled in Bear River City, Utah. His first wife had died leaving him with three motherless sons. 1) Peter Martin Iversen, who married Augusta Halling and had six children. He was killed in an auto accident when that vehicle first came into use. 2) Niels Carl Iversen, married Hilda Lundquist, they have five children. 3) Richard Iversen, moved to Levan, Utah with a former bishop of Bear River City and there married a lady by the name of Ane Andersen, they have seven children at Levan.

Karen Rasmussen and Peter Iversen had six children:

1. F Karen Iversen, born 12 May 1873, died the same day.

2. F Ane Christine Elizabeth Iversen, born 2 June 1874, died 3 years of age.

3. F Lillian Sine Iversen, born 21 Mar 1880. Married John Calvin Cobb from Missouri. They lived in Corinne for a number of years then moved to Brigham City, Utah where soon after she died, leaving her husband and two sons, a third son died.

4. F Emma Carrie Iversen, born 16 Sep 1882, died recently in Ogden, Utah. Married Reeves Douglas Heigh of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They had six children, come are now in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah. A daughter, Deborah, lived there with her husband, Robert Floyd Taylor and her family. She is now divorced and married a Mr. Caspen or Espen of Millcreek.

5. F Amanda Iversen, born 10 May 1884, married Joseph Israel Piersen of Willard, Weber Co., Utah. They have two children, a son and a daughter. They were living on the west side of the city, she died recently.

6. M Ammon Iversen, born 10 May 1884, died less than one month old.

These young ladies, Lillian, Emma and Amanda Iversen, worked in the fields with their father in helping to produce and gather the winter product and the need for themselves and their animals and the flocks in the barnyard. The three brother's by their father's first marriage were employed in their own welfare, relieving their father of their obligations.

The work thus engaged in was the usual plowing, harrowing, harvesting, stacking, and threshing of grain, cutting, raking and stacking of hay, and in the later years, thinning, cultivating and harvesting sugar beets. Their father in the later and last of his years, was the mail carrier by contract between Bear River City and Corinne, through which the old Southern Pacific Railroad ran westward toward the Pacific - the only railroad to the coast then through this region of country.

Peter Iversen, the father, also did much temple work at Logan, Utah for his first wife's family we well as on his own line.

Karen, the mother of the above family, was Cecilia Mary Smith Larsen's aunt whom we always visited when marketing at Bear River City and who always prepared a meal, as did my mother for them, and we two families were very intimate and invited together often, while both families lived in Bear River City, Utah, and after John George Erastus Larsen homesteaded on the banks of the Malad River, north 8 miles from Bear River City and adjoining the present town of Tremonton, Utah, this frequency of visits was not broken until the children married off. Peter Iversen died in Bear River City 11 Nov 1915, and his wife, Karen, died in June about 1915.

Caroline Rasmussen, sister of Karen Rasmussen Iversen, was born 31 Jan 1846 and died in Aarhus, Denmark, possibly on 4 Apr 1865. She was sealed to Karen's husband, Peter Iversen, 7 Oct 1888 in the Logan Temple.

Ane Rasmussen, also sister of Karen Rasmussen and Mette Rasmussen, was christened in Aarhus, Denmark, 17 Jan 1848 and was baptized into the LDS Church 22 Feb 1857 in Holme by M. Jensen and confirmed the same day by J. Petersen. She was then nine years old and only a few months before her father's death. She emigrated to Utah 16 May 1866. With this company was the man she married, by the name of Jens Peter Tygisen. This is the sister referred to elsewhere who died in Portland, Oregon, and whose husband met Peter Nielsen Schmidt, Mette Rasmussen Schmidt and Knudsine Christensen Pedersen in St. Louis, Missouri when they immigrated.

Further information about Peter Nielsen Schmidt, who joined the Church 2 years after his wife (Mette Rasmussen)'s death, she having been a member of the Church for over 7 years prior to her death.

After coming to Salt Lake City in 1873, a widower with two teen-age daughters, he continued giving interest and attentions to the welfare, comfort and protection of his daughters, Cecilie Marie and her younger sister, Sine Marie. He always considered no one could wash and care for their clothing as well as he could and by means of peddling small housekeeping necessities from door to door, from a basket on his arm, he soon provided a comfortable little home where his daughters could come to rest and adjust their wardrobe whenever circumstances permitted them to return home from homes where they were employed as servants to defray their personal expenses and help pay emigration fees, which they began doing as soon as they arrived in Salt Lake City.

He was graciously given credit for his merchandise by William Jennings, a wealthy and prosperous pioneer merchant, whose store was then, as I understand, about where the Hooper Building now is standing, on the north side of 1st South, just east of the First National Bank, the old Deseret National, on the corner of the intersection of Main and 1st South Street, which would be the northeast corner.

Grandfather Schmidt, in the course of time from the year 1873 when he arrived in Salt Lake City and unable to speak the English language to the year of his death, 4 June 1881, being 8 short years, had not only provided a home for himself and daughters, but had nearly a thousand dollars to his credit in the bank, and ecclesiastically had attained the Priesthood office of a high priest.

THE HISTORY OF HANS LARSEN AND HIS DESCENDANTS

by his grandson Arthur Smith Larsen

Hans Larsen, our subject, who was born the 8th of June 1806 was enlisted as a sailor in 1826, and papers therefore were cleared in 1837 18/9 in Copenhagen. He then had a furlough on the 29/9 in the year of 1837. Then he sailed to Rugenvalde, a German port. It is said that he made two voyages to the West Indies in his course of work as a sailor. Until 1840 he was called a sailor, thereafter until 1847 he was known as Pram the Sticker, a raft operator, thereafter he was a laborer from 1847 to 1850. He was a Baptist, then he became a Mormon.

An aged neighbor to hans Larsen, whom I met many years after my grandfather's death, told me that little children of the neighborhood often gathered around grandfather and listen to him tell his sailor stories and how they would stand and listen to him with their mouths open wide while he told them how he stood on the bottom of the sea with his mouth open wide, and look up at the sky.

My aunt, Christine P. L. Miller, wrote to me telling of when as a little girl, her father we her on his knee and sing to her humorous sailor ditties, or would tell her tales of life at sea. She told me of her mother knitting stockings for the whole family.

Hans Larsen's mother was reportedly a rather heavy set lady and of a farmer type, unfortunately, no photo has been seen of either of my grandparents or any of their antecedents except my mother's grandmother, also her father, Peter Nielsen Schmidt.

It is evident that Hans Larsen was seeking for further religious light and truth then which his state religion Lutheranism offered him, for we find that he was among the first Danish people to embrace the first form of religion offered or dared to offer in Denmark.

Aside from religion, which was introduced into Copenhagen, Denmark in 1840 by Peter C. Monster, a Baptist reformer, and who members it was who comprised nearly all of the earliest converts to Mormonism. Mr. Monster had by no means been free from repeated persecutions and imprisonment.

Mr. Monster had interestingly investigated the message being introduced by the first Latter-day Saints missionaries to Denmark, and had hoped to bring with himself, his congregation into the Mormon Church: but when he learned he could not continue to hold his pastoral position over them, Mr. Monster hesitated and when uncontrolled, his members continued accepting the new faith, his former interests in the revealed religion turned to bitterness against it.

The above facts further indicate that in Denmark the Lord was preparing the minds of his children for the Great Light that he had restored to the boy "Prophet Joseph Smith" in America, twenty-five to thirty years earlier, which for its teachings, some twenty thousand members, converts from the U.S.A. and England, were forced by persecutors and mobs after assassinating their Prophet and his brother, Hyrum, the Patriarch, to flee to the Rocky Mountains, where as their prophet had predicted, that they would become a great and mighty people. Some of them arrived in July 1847 and to which place great numbers continued gathering during the several years following.

The Fountain of this Great Light with the majority of its adherents in America, was now permanently nestled in the Great Salt Lake Basin, protected by its mountains, from the hostilities from without, and removed twelve hundred miles from American civilization.

It would only be proper to mention here somewhat respecting Apostle Erastus Snow in connection with this history because of his close association with Hans Larsen and his family in their home, and exercise of his office which brought this family into the Church, as well, it might here be stated that a close association and friendship, no doubt produced a kindly introduction to President Brigham Young, and of whom it is said Hans Larsen was one of Brigham's trustee men, which may be so, for one of his daughters, once relating about the death of her father (Hans Larsen), wept, stating that Johnny, her brother, was sent to the Tithing Office for some liquor to use as a stimulant to his dying father. President Young was not there and the brother who was in attendance would not give Johnny any, so he returned without the liquor. This daughter, still weeping, said if Brigham had been there, Johnny would have gotten some liquor and father would have lived.

Apostle Erastus Snow arrived in the Salt Lake Valley the 20th of September 1848, and was designated at the October Conference to open a church mission in the Scandinavian countries. Peter O. Hansen, Danish; John E. Forsgren, Swedish; and George Parker Dykes were assigned with Erastus Snow. They left Salt Lake City, Utah, the 19th of October 1849 and after visiting branches of the Church in the U.S. and England, Scotland and Wales, Elder Snow landed in Copenhagen the 14th day of June 1850. He was made an Apostle in 1849.

Hans Larsen's oldest child, Elene Hansine, helped teach Elder Snow the Danish language. During the establishment of the Scandinavian Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Snow supervised the translating and printing of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and a number of other doctrinal works.

He also compiled and issued a Scandinavian Hymn Book and began the publication of the Scandinavian Syjerne, a continued Scandinavian magazine as the Latter-day Saints organ for that nation, and after having established flourishing branches of the Church in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Elder Snow intended to leave Denmark March 1852 with the first company from Scandinavia to Utah, consisting of twenty-eight Saints under the leadership of Eli B. Kelsey, but was detained a few days on business.

Elder Snow returned by way of New York, met and found the emigrating Saints well at Council Bluffs, Iowa. This company having come by way of New Orleans, up the Mississippi River and arrived in Salt lake City the 16th of October 1852. Elder Snow preceded this company to the Valley, arriving 20th August 1852.

Saturday, June 15th 1850, Elder Snow, this humble servant of God, took room and board with a Mr. and Mrs. Lauritz B. Malling, at #196 Brodgade (then called Norgesgads). Kind treatment was received by these Elders from utah at the hands of Mr. Malling and his wife, who later became a member of the Mormon Church but did not remain faithful.

The next day, being Sunday, June the 16th, Elders Snow, Forsgren, and Dykes, and I presume, Peter O. Hansen, attended a meeting of the aforementioned Baptist reformer, Peter C. Monster. Hans Larsen, as a member of Mr. Monster's congregation at the time, was in attendance.

Here is the story of the meeting as told to me by Hans Larsen's children who came to Utah. Father was at home from his work on the sea, so attended meeting. After the meeting was dismissed the minister came as customary to the door to bid his members goodbye, and in turn met the Elders from Utah, who were sitting near the door. A discussion between them took place which resulted in the minister recalling a meeting right there and then to her from these strangers. On hearing their message, it is stated that night Hans Larsen was converted at once, and after this meeting ended he invited the Elders to his house where they stayed until other headquarters could be arranged for.

This is likely true for the fact of the several successive Church activities in the Hans Larsen house, as related by his daughter, and also found records in the Scandinavian Journal History of that time from which this account will proceed, in preference to what has been told by members of Hans Larsen's family.

-Monday 17th, 1850. Mr. Monster visited the brethren with the result of further interest in their message and in a desire to investigate to a point of imparting 350 members with himself into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

-Sunday, June 23rd, 1850. The Elders continued preaching and bearing testimony with the results of soon finding themselves surrounded by a small circle of friends, and Sunday, July 21st, their first meeting was held at the home of Peter Berkstrom, who lived on Store Kongem Gade (Great King Street), a spirited investigation was made by the followers of Mr. Monster, who was now beginning to warn his members against holding meeting and thereby incite persecution to the banishment of the Elders.

But the seeds of truth in Christ's Gospel had been sown and were bearing fruit. By the first of August 1850, eight or ten of Mr. Monster's members applied for baptism. Brother Snow did not urge the action of the new applicants, but rather held them back, whereupon the Lord made known to his servant that he was to do to no longer.

-Sunday, 11th August. Elder Snow called these applicants for baptism together and gave them instructions, prior to performing this divine and sacred essential ordinance, "the doorway to Eternal Life," which would be attended to the following day, Monday, the 12th of August, 1850.

-Monday, 12th August. This is a memorable day, in the Church History in Denmark, when this day the first converts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as taught by Him, through His Divinely appointed servants were taken in the evening into the clear waters of Oresumd, immediately outside the Ramparts of Copenhagen, and fifteen in number were immersed by Elder Erastus Snow as the first fruits of their divinely authorized labors and preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Denmark.

Among these were Hans Larsen and his wife, Elena Dorthea Stromberg Bentzen. At their home on Christianshavn a meeting was held on Sunday the 18th of August, 1850, where the newly baptized members were confirmed and the three little daughters of Hans and Elena Larsen were blessed by the divine authority according to the pattern given by the Savior of the World, eighteen hundred years ago.

-Sunday, August 25th, another meeting was held at the home of Hans Larsen on Christianshavn on which occasion the Sacrament was administered for the first time in Denmark in this dispensation by divine authority.

-Sunday, September 1st, 1850. A number of Saints met with the Elders at Elder Hans Larsen's house on Christianshavn, where the sacrament was again administered and little children blessed. This is the first known record of Hans Larsen being called an Elder in the Priesthood, and it is presumed to be a mistake, for the records show that on New Year's Day, 1851, Hans Larsen was ordained a deacon, if the record is correct.

At any rate, my endeavors to obtain any further record, or information on him either in Denmark or from my mother have failed.

-Friday, 1st Sep [sic]. A meeting was held in the forenoon at Hans Larsen's house and one in the evening at the same place. In the afternoon of the same day the meeting was held at the home of Peter Beckstrom. The sacrament was administered and several children blessed. But the records are not clear as to in whose house these ordinances and baptism were performed.

-10 Sep. Another meeting was held in the house of Hans Larsen.

-June 22, 1851. There is recorded a meeting held in Copenhagen, Denmark, and of Hans Larsen, who had volunteered a mission to Bornholm. History records that ordinations to the Priesthood were also performed in Hans Larsen's house.

-Dec 20th 1852. The first large emigrating company, a precious cargo of Saints to America, numbering about 300 souls, men, women, and children, under the captainship of John E. Forsgren, left Denmark bound for Utah. Hans Larsen's family formed part of this company on the sailing vessel, Forest Monarch. Both on the wharf and on the ship were waving hands, handkerchieves and hats and songs were sung and exchanged until they could be no longer seen or heard by each other.

The voyage across the North Sea was very hazardous and it was feared because of the great vicious storms and the high waves that would wash over the ship and destruction would be certain. It was necessary to cast anchor under shelter of Folster Island. It was nearly the middle of January when the company sailed from England. The rest of the voyage taking a little more than two and a half months to New Orleans, America, was in general reasonably calm, except for much seasickness. A few deaths occurred on the way and bodies were lowered into a watery grave.

-Thursday, March 17, 1853. The record states that a little girl died and was buried at New Orleans. This is, of course, a matter of fact with grandfather's family, for little Margrette Kristine Larsen died one day from landing and was buried at New Orleans.

The following account of their crossing the plains is given by their daughter, Eline Hansine Larsen Lambert: [See also her history]

"We had a few accidents on the way. A few got run over, one was Brother Wm. Andersen, but none proved fatal. We had an exciting time one day, we were getting ferried over the river and one of the wagon beds gloated off with a woman in it that was half blind. It was only a little above a big dam, but they got it out all right without everything getting wet. The oxen swam out with the running gears. It was not on the plains where this accident happened. It was on the way from Keokuk.

"When we were in Keokuk the apple trees were in bloom. While there we lived in tents. That was where we were fitted out for our journey across the plains. We camped right outside of a settlement and stayed the next day. Some men came and told us to get or they would serve us like they did the Mormons. In some way that I have forgotten our president had gone out of town.

"A storm had been gathering all day. Our camp was just below a bench, they wanted to get there, for it was nearly night, our ten wagons were the first to get there. We had just arrived when the storm broke. The lightning flashed and the thunder rolled. Father had to be herding the cattle. It was so dark they could not see them, only when the lightning flashed. Not much supper that night.

"We had Indian visitors on our way, sometimes they would ride up in front of the head team and stop it. Of course, the whole train would have to stop, and they would beg for everything. One time they wanted to buy mother, give horses for her. I guess we did not want the horses bad enough, for we are all in Utah now."

Ardent in his newly accepted faith, Hans Larsen displayed great faith and on one occasion when one of his grandsons, William H. Oblad, was seriously sick and hopes by his parents were despaired of his recovery. Hans Larsen came in and blessed him to live, and today (1940) advanced in years, William H. Oblad testifies of this blessing by his grandfather.

Hans Larsen labored for years hoisting granite for the Salt lake Temple with block and tackle, and until prior to his death in 1876, he hauled much water for the people's use, and hauled water from the warm spring north of Salt Lake City for President Brigham Young to bathe in as a cure for his rheumatism.

Reference is now made from a letter from the next oldest daughter of Hans Larsen, Christine Paterina Larsen Miller, in the year of 1932, then 92 years of age and living in Thayne, Wyoming, who substantiated the recitations of Elina Hansine Larsen Lambert, living in Utah. She says:

"The first home the family lived in after arriving in Utah was a little pole house built in the shape of a tent. The roof was covered with sod. There was a fireplace in the south end of the house which served for many purposes.

"Soon after arriving in the Valley, father went to work on the Salt Lake Temple, and worked every day but one, when he became ill from undernourishment. About the third year of living in the valley, the grasshopper panic came and destroyed all of their crops and food. This disaster compelled both men and women and children to live on a poor ration consisting of edible weeds boiled in salt water, they were called greens. They lived on this diet for six weeks.

"Grain was raised on the Church farm and permitted for use only by the people working on the temple. The grain was ground with the old Burr Mill. As I remember I was about 13 or 14 years of age when I walked from the 2nd Ward to Sugar House Ward with a sack of wheat on my back to be ground into flour for the family."

Hans Larsen lived from September 1853 principally in Salt Lake City, Utah and in the 2nd Ward until 27 February 1876, when he died there, a High Priest. It is said of him immediately after his death he returned and counselled his wife relative to her position in the Church. Whatever his instructions to her were is not known, but at this late date, 1939, I discovered in the temple records where in 1876 after grandfather's death, grandmother had two women, one her own sister, Emma Andersen [?], the other a Swedish lady, sealed to him, grandfather Larsen.

Hans Larsen was born in Lund, Lydevslor, Praeto, Denmark the 8th of June 1806. He married Elena Dorthea Stromberg Bentzen the 8th of August 1836. She was born December 27th 1810 and she died 9 March 1877, Salt Lake City, Utah. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Endowment House 28 March 1856.

7. F Margrette Kristine Larsen. Born 24 Oct 1849 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Died at sea March 17, 1853. Buried at New Orleans, Louisiana the 18th or 19th of March, 1853.

8. M John George Erastus Larsen. Born 3 Sep 1852, Copenhagen, Denmark. He died 27 Feb 1922 in Salt Lake City, Utah and is buried there.

HANS LARSEN - GENEALOGY AND DESCENDANTS

Hans Larsen, the fifth of eight children and the third son of Lars Pedersen and Maren Hansdatter was born 8 June 1806 in Lyderslev, Praesto, Denmark.

His father, Lars Pedersen, was the oldest of nine children, and was born in Sep 1766 and became a blacksmith (smed) in Lyderslev. He married Maren Hansdatter 11 May 1800 in Spjellrup, Denmark. He died 26 Nov 1833. His wife Maren was born in 1773 and died 20 Mar 1839, age 66.

Lars Pedersen's father, Peder Olsen, was born about 1727 and was a houseowner and a smed. He married Maren Andersen 29 Oct 1765. He was buried 14 Nov 1788, aged 61. His wife Maren was born about 1740 and was buried 1 July 1800 aged 60.

Peder Olsen's father, Ole, was a smed in Lyderslev and was born about 1696. He was buried 19 Oct 1766 aged 70. He was married to Ane Pedersdatter who was born about 1726 and buried 6 Oct 1796, age 70. She may have been his second wife and not the mother of his children, three in number.

Hans Larsen's mother, Maren Hansdatter (Hansen) was born 20 Oct 1776, the third of six children and the third daughter of Hans Pedersen Porse and Kristin Jacobsdatter. She died 20 Mar 1839. Porse, her father, was born about 1727. He was a farmer in Spjellerup, Sogn, Denmark. He married Kirstin Jacobsdatter 12 Nov 1767. He was buried 18 May 1812, age 85. His father Peder Porse, was born about 1689 and lived in Kissendrup, Taxe, Sogn, Denmark. He was buried 22 July 1764, age 75.

Kirsten Jacobsdatter, Hans Larsen's grandmother, was baptized in Kongsted, 27 Sep 1750. She was the youngest of eight children and the second daughter of Jacob and Sidsel Ditlevsdatter. She died 21 Feb 1830, age 80.

Jacob Jensen, father of Kirsten Jacobsdatter, was born 1700, it is believed in Roholte, Sogn, Denmark. He was a smed in Kongsted. He was married to Sidsel Ditlevsdatter 7 June 1740 and was buried 20 Mar 1776, age 76. Sidsel Ditlevsdatter, mother of Kirsten Jacobsdatter was born about 1721 the fourth of seven children and the third daughter of Ditlev Andersen and Maren, his wife. She married Jacob Jensen 7 June 1740 and buried 21 April 1794, age 73.

Elena Dorthea Stromberg Bentzen's brother, Christian Martin Bentzen, came to America long before the family left Denmark, and settled in Albany, New York. A young daughter of Hans Larsen, the youngest to reach Utah with the family, Marie or Mary Magdeline Larsen Oblad, who was longest at home with the family after arriving in Utah and whose disposition was to write and record things, states in some of her notes that her mother's brother, Christian Martin Bentzen came to Albany, New York, August 1838 and three of her father's brothers, according to the traditions, left Denmark. It is quite likely that this is true, for according to the Genealogical Manuscript from the church books of the parish where the family lived, the births of Christian Martin Bentzen, Peder Larsen, Anders Larsen, and Jacob Larsen, is all that can be found of them. In the year 1838, the time given as when Mr. Bentzen came to America, the group ranged from 20 to 37 years in age, and since the families intermarried in 1836, and Christian Bentzen having just become 20 years of age, it is probable that the other members of the Larsen family came to America and brought Mr. Bentzen with them. He was the only son and had been motherless since he was 8 years of age. Some little research has been made for these missing relatives, but thus far all efforts have failed. Our government requires the name of the ship's passengers arrived on before it can aid us in the search, and the name of the ship is not known. However, the search for them will continue by Arthur S. Larsen, grandson of Hans Larsen, for my four grand uncles.

Hans Larsen and his wife, Elena Dorthea Bentzen, have many descendants through their four children, three daughters and one son, who came to Utah.

Eline Hansine Larsen, was born 13 Sep 1838, in Copenhagen, Denmark and was married 10 June 1855 to John Lambert in the Salt Lake Endowment House, as his second wife, by President Brigham Young.

To this union were born in Kamas, Utah, twelve children, who have vitally engaged in the Priesthood and Church organizations activities. Mrs. Lambert died the 14 Sep 1921 at Kamas, Utah, and is buried there where she endured the trials of early Utah pioneer life and where her family was raised. [More information in her own history.]

Mr. Lambert came into the Church early, was in Nauvoo, and was from Gargarff[?], Yorkshire, England. He was in the sawmill business for years and furnished some of the lumber for some of the outstanding mines in Park City, Utah. Their children are as follows:

Three members of the Lambert Family married three members of the Michie Family.

The second surviving daughter of Hans and Elena Larsen was Christine Patrine Larsen, who was born 13 Aug 1844 in Copenhagen and was married in the Old Endowment House on 13 Apr 1861 to Samuel Robert Miller, who was born 5 May 1838 in Washington, Iowa. His parents were early Church members in Nauvoo, Illinois. I have heard that his father died of privation while working on the Nauvoo Temple in 1840.

James Miller, the father of Samuel Miller, was born in Kentucky about 1810. His wife, Sarah Sercey, also Searcey, was born about 1815 in Rutherford County, North Carolina, the daughter of Robert Sercey and Mary Spivey, Spiecy or Spire, and who were sealed in the St. George Temple by Sarah Sarcey on 14 Mar 1878.

It is also found that this Sarah Sercey Miller, after her husband's death, together with her oldest daughter, Mary Jane Miller, were married to John Hopwood Blazard, from England, by Brigham Young at Winter Quarters the 30 Mar 1848, witnesses Willard Richards and Wilford Woodruff. Both were later divorced from Mr. Blazard, yet there are children by both women. Later Endowment House records disclosed that Sarah Sarcey was sealed to James Miller, her first husband.

Arthur Smith Larsen showed some interest in this research due to his aunt, Christine Patrine Larsen, having married the second son of James and Sarah Sarcey Miller, and by whom she bore a large family.

Samuel Robert Miller and his wife, Christine P. Larsen lived after their marriage in Ashley's Fork, Utah. They moved from there to Kamas, so states a nephew, Hyrum Hill of Fish Haven, Idaho.

Samuel Miller's oldest son, James S. Miller says, "Father went to Bear Lake in 1865, to Kamas in the year of 1867 and to Ashley in 1871, to Wood River 1881, to Star Valley in 1886." There his father died on 20 Apr 1887. There his widow, Christine P. L. Miller, married the second time Joel Sidney Wright, son of Diana Kipp and Calvin Seard Wright, whose father was a Revolutionary Soldier. Joel S. Wright died several years later. Then Aunt Christine married Sandy Alexander. She died in December 1936 and was buried at Thayne, Wyoming, in January 1937.

This aunt related about their hard pioneer life and that when one of her little daughters was sorely afflicted with diphtheria, in her last agonies for want of breath, clutched her hair with both hands and beat her head against the wall.

Also of a son-in-law who went out in the winter time to find his horses. As it was a rather warm day, the snow grew soft, night came on and he did not return. In their search for him, they could follow in his tracks very easily and found near the end of the trail, his tracks showed that he had gone into the water, and swam the stream, and in picking up the trail on the opposite side he was found to have soon sat down, with his knees near his chin and had died in this position, perhaps from freezing or cramps, but already magpies had eaten his eyes out.

She also told of taking the gun one night on hearing a disturbance about the hen house when she found it to be a wild cat. Also of how a stranger came to her house and asked for a needle and thread and something to eat, which she gave him, although her food was scanty. When he had finished eating, he arose and thanked her, and bid her good day. Being surprised at the unusual circumstance and individual, she hastened and opened the door to see the direction in which the stranger was moving. Her home being on a slight eminence, she was able to observe for a distance on either side thereof, but she could not see this man anywhere. She thinks she entertained one of the three Nephites.

Samuel and Christine L. Miller had eleven children and leave a large posterity, living principally in Idaho and Wyoming. Her family is represented in the mission field and in Church work.

The family lived at various places aside from Ashley, Utah, and possibly Placer, in Idaho. There are like names in Utah and Idaho; farming, ranching, and dairying were the principal pursuit for livelihood.

The third surviving daughter of Hans and Elena Dorthea Larsen, Marie Magdalene Larsen was born 11 Mar (or Nov) 1847 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She married on 18 Jan 1867 in the Endowment House to John Frederich Oblad (or Aablad). He was born 10 Nov 1841 in Osteraker, Sondermanland, Sweden. He filled a local mission after his baptism, 1 Apr 1859, and emigrated to Utah. He later filled another mission to his native country and during the last of his mission he was made president of the Stockholm Conference. Mr. Oblad was senior member of the pioneer carriage making firm known as Oblad and Knight. Of him, President Joseph F. Smith said at his funeral, 1 June 1904, "He was a man in whom there was no guile."

To this couple there were born eleven children. This aunt believed that their family descended from the nobility, which may be true. Her grandmother was born a Faulkenburg, this name is found among the nobility of nearly all European nations, according to research, but a connection has not yet been made with them. She also used to say she had used the hammer at the forge with her husband, he being a blacksmith as well as a carriage maker. This family is represented in the mission field, ward and stake work, and ministry in the Church. They have a large posterity. Their children were all born in Salt Lake City, Utah, as follows:

The fourth surviving child, John George Erastus Larsen, grew to manhood and married Cecilia Mary Schmidt or Smith while living in the 2nd Ward of Salt Lake City, Utah on 3 Sep 1877. They were later sealed in the Endowment House on 27 June 1878.

Following are the children of John George Erastus Larsen and Cecilia Mary Smith.

1. M John William Larsen. Born 25 Sep 1878, died 9 Jan 1886 at Newton, Cache, Utah, and is buried there.

2. M Hans Peter Larsen. Born 19 Feb 1880, a farmer and dairyman. Married Mary Rasmussen of Brigham City, Utah, on the 30 Sep 1904. They had six children, living in Harper, Oregon.

3. M Arthur (Schmidt) Smith Larsen. Born 10 May 1881. Married 20 Mar 1907, Annie Laura Hancock of Payson, Utah. They had five daughters and lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. They also had a niece (Mary Evelette Rose Bryson) who lived with them for four or five years while they lived in Bountiful, Utah. She was the oldest of Charles Edwin Rose and Cecilia Mary Larsen.

5. F Cecilia Mary Larsen. Born 18 Mar 1884 in Coveville, Cache, Utah. Married 8 Oct 1902 Charles Edwin Rose of Farmington, Davis, Utah. She died on 1 Apr 1909 in Farmington and is buried there. They had four children. The two youngest, Charles Erwin Rose and Alice Rose and their father are also buried in Farmington. Their oldest daughter Mary Evelette Rose Bryson lives in Woods Cross, she and her husband, Thaddeus S. Bryson, have six children. The second daughter, LeMond Sine Pendleton married and divorced a man by the name of Pendleton,by whom she had three daughters and one son. She then married George W. Parrish, by whom she had two daughters. He died 26 Dec 1946 and is buried in Blackfoot, Bingham, Idaho. She later married a man by the name of Wing, they had no children and she has been sealed to him.

6. F Rosemond Sine Larsen. Born 20 June 1886 at Bear River City, Utah. Married 5 June 1917 Andrew Leonard Thorstrom. They have six children. Mr. Thorstrom died suddenly while on duty as Salt Lake City Fire Captain #7 on 30 Apr 1929. They live in Salt Lake City.

7. F Clara Leotha Larsen. Born 10 Aug 1888, Bear River City, Utah. Married 27 Dec 1905, Guy Frederick Harris. They have one son and one daughter and three adopted children and live at Coaldale, Alberta, Canada and did extensive farming.

8. F Viola Magdeline Larsen. Born 31 Aug 1890 at Bear River City. Married 31 Aug 1909 to Evan Willard Howell, died 13 Apr 1915 at Garland, Utah, and is with one infant daughter and one infant son buried in the Elwood Cemetery on the east banks of the Malad River. Her husband and one daughter survives. They live at Roosevelt, Utah. Two grandchildren are Gleason by name and live at Boise, Idaho, and one grandchild at Roosevelt by the name of Savage.

9. F Rowena Virginia Larsen. Born 30 June 1892 at Tremonton (or Elwood), Box Elder, Utah. Married first Heber Bertel Haws, 11 Sep 1914. They have two daughters and one son. Mr. Haws died of influenza the 5th of Nov 1918, during World War I, when that dreadful disease was reaping down on the inhabitants of the earth in greater proportion to the loss by the ward, which amounted to many millions. They live in Vernal, Utah. His widow married second a man by the name of Albert Richins of Vernal, Utah on 22 June 1921. They have five children. They have been living at Coaldale, Alberta, but are now living back at Vernal, Utah.

10. M Harvey Ezekiel Larsen. Born 17 July 1894 at Tremonton (or Elwood). First married on 5 Nov 1913 to Sylvia Miller of Riverton, Utah. They have a son and one daughter. They were divorced. The mother and children live in Salt Lake City, Utah. His second marriage was 14 Feb 1925 to Juliana B. Bruckman, who had one son and one daughter by a former marriage. They have a son and are now living in California, where he was employed as a boiler maker at the D.&. R.G. Railroad shops.

11. M Jesse LaVern Larsen. Born 5 July 1896 at Tremonton (or Elwood). Married 19 Apr 1915 to Elise Gustavison. They had one son and one daughter who was born after the father's death on 9 Dec 1916 of sarcoma cancer of the leg, which had to be amputated. But the disease was not cleared by the operation, from which he recovered, for in six months the cancer had traveled to his heart and sapped his remaining strength and life. He is also buried at Elwood, Utah. His widow married second a man by the name of Raymond Averet. They have children and live in Salt Lake City, Utah. Aunt Elise and Uncle Ray were killed in an auto accident on the 1st of August 1958 in Parley Canyon, going on a fishing trip with their two grandchildren from California.

12. M Lester Orlonzo Larsen. Born 31 May 1898, at Tremonton (or Elwood). His first marriage was to Edna Byington of Lava Hot Springs, on 4 Sep 1918. She also died of that dreadful disease the influenza soon after their marriage. A few days addressing us at Bountiful, Utah, reporting that she and her husband and her people were quite well, and I (Arthur S. Larsen) wondered who would be next. It seemed almost immediately we received a telegram apprising us of her departure. This concurrent with the time I had received the telegram informing us of my sister, Rowena's, husband, Heber Haws, death from the same dreadful disease. He married second Mrs. LaVern (Collins) Pearson. She had four children by her former marriage. They live in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is employed with the Cudahy Packing Company, North Salt Lake City, Utah.

13. M Leland Irvin Larsen. Born 24 June 1900 at Tremonton (or Elwood), Box Elder County. married 4 Jan 1922, Wilma Wilburn. They have a son and daughter and live in California. He was a trucker for a chemical corporation. He died 7 Apr 1946, and buried from the Rice Memorial Chapel, 11 Apr 1946.

THE SCANDINAVIAN CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICA

Although Denmark is a very small and practically flat country almost every acre of ground is used. Their chief occupations being farming and dairying and stock raising. They take very good care of their stock, many times having better barns for their animals than homes.

The first companies that left Scandinavia had 28 souls, the other had 297 souls, leaving Liverpool in December 1853 under the leadership of John Forsgren.

We should say here that this is the company that included our ancestor Hans Larsen, his wife Elena Dorthea Stromberg Bentzen and their 5 children, four daughters and one son, John George Erastus Larsen. This company landed mostly in America at the ports of New Orleans, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, making the trip in sailing boats, very few sailed in steamships.

In 1849 Brigham Young called a party of Saints, under the leadership of Patriarch Isaac Morley to settle a town that is now called Manti, Utah. The altitude here was higher and much colder. Here the Saints suffered a lot of hardships the first winter.

Nearly thirty thousand converts to Mormonism have come from the three Scandinavian countries to the United States, among whom fully one half were from Denmark.

History of Peter Nielsen Schmidt

taken from Genealogical Sketch of Cecilia Mary Smith Larsen

Peter (or Peder) Nielsen Schmidt, was born in Norborg, Als, Denmark, on the 26th of October 1825, the son of Jorgen Schmidt and Cecilia Marie Pedersen, later Petersen. His mother later married Jorgen Rasmussen and had five children by him.

His mother, Cecilia (or Sidsel) Marie Pedersen was christened on the 10th day of January 1802, in the Maarstal Church, Svendborg, Denmark. She was the daughter of Peder Nielsen of St. Rise Church, Aero, Svendborg, Denmark and Karen Hansen or Lauritzdatter. Both names appear, Hansdatter in marriage and later as Lauritzdatter. It is possible that this ladyís father had the two names Hans and Lauritz, or one was her fatherís surname, which Danish people sometimes took on rather than using the patronymic pattern of using the fatherís first name as the surname. She was likely born in Kragmus, Svendborg, Denmark.

Arthur S. Larsen heard his mother discuss the name of this grandmother of her father as that of Kaspersen, therefore her name might be Karen Kaspersen, daughter of Hans or Lauritz Kaspersen.

Peterís mother left Maarstal 30 Jun 1822 and went to the Isle of Als in Norborg, Denmark. There her son Peter was born. His father, Jorgen (or Jorgan) Schmidt was a servant. The vaccination record when Peter was a year old list him as the son of Sidsel Marie Pedersdatter and Jorgan Schmidt. Though they were not married, they may have been engaged, allowing the mother to claim the fatherís name for her child.

According to early Scandinavian LDS Church records, Peter Nielsen Schmidt accepted the message of the Gospel, also members of his family, his wife and all of her family, sometime before they emigrated to Utah in 1873, and there was correspondence between my grandfather and his mother and stepfather after coming to Salt Lake City. There is a letter from Jorgen Rasmussen (the stepfather) to Peter Nielsen Schmidt, and also a recollection of Arthur S. Larsen hearing his mother state that her father (P.N. Schmidt) had encouraged his mother to come to Utah, but she lastly gave up hopes for this venture.

Peter Nielsen Schmidt married Mette Rasmussen in Aarhus, Denmark in 1855. She was born 29 Apr 1838 at Hongcalle, Maarslet, Aarhus, Denmark, the daughter of Rasmus Pedersen and Knudsine Christensen. She was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 7 Nov 1858 [family group record shows date of 7 Nov 1853] in the sit [?] by N. Christensen and confirmed a member of the church the same day by the same elder. To this couple were born the following children.

2. Cecilia Marie Schmidt, born 12 Jan 1858, Aarhus, Denmark. She was baptized 8 June 1873. She married John George Erastus Larsen on 3 September 1876 in Salt Lake City. She died 26 Aug 1930 in Salt Lake City.

Peterís wife, Mette Rasmussen, died 1 July 1866, a member of the Church, just before or after two of her sisters embarked for America. Her sisters who came to Utah were Karen, who married Peter Iversen and settled in Bear River City, Utah, and Anna, who married Jens Peter Tygisen. Her brother Peder Rasmusssen came in 1872. His wife, Bodil Marie Paulsen and a little son, Lauritz Peter Rasmussen had come the year before, 1871.

Mette Rasmussenís parents, Rasmus Pedersen, who died in Holme, Aarhus, Denmark 27 May 1857, and Knudsine Christensen joined themselves with the Latter-day Saints Church on 13 April 1853, soon after the Gospel was introduced into Scandinavia.

It appears that after the daughter, Metteís, death in 1866, her mother, grandmother to Metteís little children, gave a hand in their care and protection, for she remained in Denmark while her other adult children emigrated and then accompanied these two motherless granddaughters and their father to Utah in 1873, their father having been baptized into the LDS Church on 6 July 1868, by Elder L. Larsen. It seems the family waited for the father to accept Mormonism before emigrating. Presumably he would not have had a strong desire to leave until such time as he was converted to the Gospel.

Peter Nielsen Schmidt, joined the Church 2 years after his wife (Mette Rasmussen)ís death, she having been a member of the Church for over 7 years prior to her death.

After coming to Salt Lake City in 1873, a widower with two teen-age daughters, he continued giving interest and attentions to the welfare, comfort, and protection of his daughters, Cecilie Marie and her younger sister, Sine Marie. He always considered no one could wash and care for their clothing as well as he could and by means of peddling small housekeeping necessities from door to door, from a basket on his arm, he soon provided a comfortable little home where his daughters could come to rest and adjust their wardrobe whenever circumstances permitted them to return home from homes where they were employed as servants to defray their personal expenses and help pay emigration fees, which they began doing as soon as they arrived in Salt Lake City.

He was graciously given credit for his merchandise by William Jennings, a wealthy and prosperous pioneer merchant, whose store was then, as I understand, about where the Hooper Building now is standing, on the north side of 1st South, just east of the First National Bank, the old Deseret National, on the corner of the intersection of Main and 1st South Street, which would be the northeast corner.

Grandfather Schmidt, in the course of time from the year 1873 when he arrived in Salt Lake City and unable to speak the English language to the year of his death, 4 June 1881, being 8 short years, had not only provided a home for himself and daughters, but had nearly a thousand dollars to his credit in the bank, and ecclesiastically had attained the Priesthood office of a high priest. He had been endowed in the Endowment House on 4 Sep 1876.

History of Rasmus Pedersen

taken from Genealogical Sketch of Cecilia Mary Smith Larsen

Rasmus Pedersen and his wife, Knudsine Christensen, joined themselves with the Latter-day Saints Church on 13 April 1853, soon after the Gospel was introduced into Scandinavia.

Rasmus was born 2 Feb 1807 and christened 29 Oct 1807 in Malling, Aarhus, Denmark, son of Peder Pedersen and Mette Pedersen. Knudsine was born 5 Apr 1808 in Aarhus, Aarhus and christened 12 Jun 1808 in Skaade, Aarhus, Denmark, daughter of Hans Christensen and Ane Knudsen. They were married about 1838 in Maarslet, Aarhus, Denmark. [Family group sheet gives date of 29 Apr 1838, which is the same day as the birth of their first child, possible but unlikely.]

They had 8 children from 1838 to 1849, two dying as infants. The remaining six children, a son and five daughters, were all baptized into the LDS Church between 1854 and 1864. Obviously their parents set a good example for them and they must have seen the strength of their testimonies.

Their daughter, Caroline, died in Denmark 4 April 1865. Another daughter, Mette, wife of Peter Nielsen Schmidt, also died in Denmark on 1 July 1866, a member of the Church. About that same time two of her sisters embarked for America. Her sisters who came to Utah were Karen, who married Peter Iversen and settled in Bear River City, Utah, and Anna, who married Jens Peter Tygisen. Her brother Peder Rasmusssen came in 1872, his wife, Bodil Marie Paulsen and a little son, Lauritz Peter Rasmussen having come in 1871.

It appears that after their daughter, Metteís, death in 1866, Knudsine, grandmother to Metteís little children, gave a hand in their care and protection, for she remained in Denmark as her adult children emigrated, and then accompanied these two motherless granddaughters and their father to Utah in 1873, their father having been baptized into the LDS Church on 6 July 1868, by Elder L. Larsen. It seems the family waited for the father to accept Mormonism before emigrating.

Though little is actually written of Rasmus Pedersen and his wife, Knudsine, they embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ very early in the history of the Church in Scandinavia. All of their 6 children who lived to adulthood also joined the Church and four emigrated to Utah. Rasmus died in Holme, Aarhus, Denmark 27 May 1857, four years after his baptism into the LDS Church, and before he could witness the great emigration of Danish Saints to Utah. His wife, Knudsine, went to Utah and lived with her daughter, Karen, wife of Peter Iversen, in Bear River City. She presumably died there, and is buried in the Bear River City Cemetery, though no record has been found to document her date of death.